Issue 8: Spring 2018 of the online journal published by the Claims Conference for those who work or live with Holocaust survivors is now available online. To go to the issue, you can click on this link.
The issue includes a paper I wrote on “Dehumanization in the Treatment of Elderly Holocaust Survivors and Other Elderly Persons with Histories of Prior Traumatization”. My paper is available by clicking on the image below.
In the last phases of life, many survivors require care in medical settings and long-term care facilities. Unfortunately, as Haque and Waytz state, “Dehumanization is endemic in medical care” (2012). Consequently, and tragically, when elderly survivors are most frail and helpless, they might be re-traumatized by the treatment they receive from healthcare providers. Studies from several research perspectives suggest that unintentional, implicit dehumanizing perceptions of others can emerge even in well-intentioned professionals who are invested in helping others. The potential sources of dehumanizing perceptions of patients by their healthcare providers are reviewed and their relevance to the clinical care of elderly trauma survivors is discussed.
Irit Felsen
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